Short Story Writers - David Sedaris, et al.

[IronUnkind]

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Read Richard Ford.

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Good writer. Creepy avatar.

[IronUnkind]

Delillo's "Pafko at the Wall: The Shot Heard Round The World" is one of my favorite pieces of writing. It later served as a sort of prologue for Underworld with a few changes and now it's available as a novella.

Similarly, James Agee's "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" was appended to the beginning of A Death In The Family. It's some of the lovliest prose I've read.

Edit: Neither of these are anything like Sedaris. My favorite of his is "You Can't Kill The Rooster" from Me Talk Pretty One Day.

[snagglepuss]

wow how has this thread had so many replies with no mention of augusten burroughs?

i enjoyed all of his books. i think i preferred 'dry' over 'running with scissors' because i was interested in stories that involved his life in advertising and whatnot.

[BPA234]

Thom Jones
Charles Bukowski
Richard Ford
Tobias Wolf
Stephen King

[dogdrool]

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Why Don't You Dance? and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love are two big favorites of mine. I think the one about the guys killing the girl is "So Much Water So Close to Home." I really like the one about how he screws up his life by screwing the housekeeper in a dingy motel he's keeping. Can't remember if that one is "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" or not. He had so many really excellent ones.

I think there was one where his wife really lays into him about his basically horrible habits and nature and what a jerk he is, and he tries to come back with one devastating riposte, and it ends with something like, "And then, he couldn't possibly think what it was." It might have been called something like "Just One More Thing," but I dunno. Just popped into my head. He does it better than me though. It was pretty powerful. Even his stories that are virtual throwaways can really smack your brain up good. He does have the occasional miss, though, but not too many, and his direct emotional hits and the absolute virtuosity of many of his stories are incredible.

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How about the one where this husband drops by the diner where his wife works and overhears some dudes talkin about how his wife is fat. So he confronts her and puts her on a hardcore diet. Basically no eating.

She starts droppin pounds and this husband rolls over to the diner again and tries to bait some dudes into making comments. He's like "waddya think" as she scoops out some ice cream. They think he's just some nutjob. Then when people are like "who is that guy?" the wife is like, "I guess that's my husband."

Again, I'm not relating it well -- but the story rules.

[gumpzilla]

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wow how has this thread had so many replies with no mention of augusten burroughs?

i enjoyed all of his books. i think i preferred 'dry' over 'running with scissors' because i was interested in stories that involved his life in advertising and whatnot.

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Augusten Burroughs is actually somebody who I think would be a good mention for somebody who liked Sedaris, but not what I would call a short story writer at all.

As a billion people have mentioned, Carver is good. Salinger's "Nine Stories" is a pretty solid collection, and I've actually found that Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story collections do more for me than his novels, mostly because I've a hard time getting into them.

[KingMedicine]

again, thank you to everyone who has posted in this thread. i have an english degree from Cal, but somehow, amazingly, never got much into short stories. ive read every word of every post in this thread and will take a serious look at each of your suggestions.

[george w]

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Hemingway's also the [censored], esp. "The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber"

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I don't think Hemingway gets any better than the second sentence of "A Clean Well Lighted Place."

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this is a [censored] great story. i also really like Up In Michigan.

[mjkidd]

Sedaris is a nonfiction writer; he writes essays and memoirs. When someone says "short story" he is usually refering to a fictional short story. This sounds nitty but a lot of the responses (Hemmingway, Carver, Borges, etc) are great (fictional) short story writers that will not be similar at all to Sedaris.

If you're looking for a collection of essays, something like "The Best American Essays of..." would be a nice start. You might also just buy a copy of the New Yorker; there is usually a lot of good stuff in there. If you're just looking for good short stuff to read, not necessarily essays, Carver is excellent.

[FeelGoodAboutHood]

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Why Don't You Dance? and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love are two big favorites of mine. I think the one about the guys killing the girl is "So Much Water So Close to Home." I really like the one about how he screws up his life by screwing the housekeeper in a dingy motel he's keeping. Can't remember if that one is "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" or not. He had so many really excellent ones.

I think there was one where his wife really lays into him about his basically horrible habits and nature and what a jerk he is, and he tries to come back with one devastating riposte, and it ends with something like, "And then, he couldn't possibly think what it was." It might have been called something like "Just One More Thing," but I dunno. Just popped into my head. He does it better than me though. It was pretty powerful. Even his stories that are virtual throwaways can really smack your brain up good. He does have the occasional miss, though, but not too many, and his direct emotional hits and the absolute virtuosity of many of his stories are incredible.

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I get chills just thinking about these stories. I would say that I probably read Why don't you dance? or What we talk about when we talk about Love once every two or three weeks. There is such a stab of actuallity in Carver's work and those might be the two of the better examples. The story where he screws the maid is called 'Gazebo'

Someone mentioned Salinger's Nine Stories, great call, I believe 'The Laughing Man' to be one of the greatest stories ever written, the rare story that can be enjoyed by a variety of ages, it's so versatile. I go back to it every two years or so and find a new story there for me.

Two that should be mentioned that haven't are James Baldwin's collection 'Going To Meet the Man' (Sonny's Blues) and the collected stories of Wright Morris.